Globe Hides Big Story of Leah Cole’s Resignation

res·ig·na·tion
1. an act of retiring or giving up a position.
2. the acceptance of something undesirable but inevitable.

I was surprised at the spotty coverage of Peabody State Rep Leah Cole abruptly resigning her seat last week. The Boston Globe story was barely more than her press release, and omitted any mention of HOW she “unexpectedly” won her seat.

By John Laidler GLOBE CORRESPONDENT SEPTEMBER 22, 2015
Leah Cole, a political newcomer who unexpectedly won a special election to become the Peabody state representative in 2013, announced she is resigning to focus on her nursing career.

The Peabody Republican, then 24, upset Democrat Beverly Griffin Dunne and Independent David Gravel to fill the seat vacated after Joyce Spiliotis died in November 2012.

Joshua Miller hints at more to the story in his Political Happy Hour Column, writing pointedly that she “is citing the desire” to continue in her nursing career.

And Stephanie Ebbert has not written about Leah Cole’s resignation at all. Instead, she turned in a column seemingly designed to paper over the story and prop up the spirits of the libertarian activists who helped Cole get elected:

In the run-up to the last presidential election, the Massachusetts Republican Party faced a big embarrassment when friends of the state’s own former governor Mitt Romney — who would, of course, become the GOP nominee — lost local caucuses to the better-organized allies of Ron Paul.

Paul’s so-called “Liberty delegates” beat out GOP VIPs like former Lieutenant Governor Kerry Healey and would have taken their seats at the national GOP convention, if not for an effort by MassGOP lawyers, who found a way to disqualify most of the Paul supporters.

This year, the establishment wasn’t taking any chances.

Party leaders tried to cancel the caucus used to elect delegates to the convention — who needs a messy voting process? — and instead select representatives themselves.

The activists again cried foul — but this time, they won.

By a narrow, 37-35 vote, the Massachusetts Republican State Committee shot down the party leaders’ proposal at a Sept. 16 meeting, retaining the chance for the little guy to win the caucuses and becomes delegates to the RNC.

“It’s great when you get to beat the establishment,” said activist Brad Wyatt.

The real story is the ultimate humiliating defeat of the Liberty activists mentioned above. Leah Cole resigned in resignation of the fact that “party leaders” in the “establishment” were never going to let her get anywhere, no matter how good her attendance record. The whole strategy of Ron Paul’s online base of libertarian supporters of trying to elect “our people” into office is flawed, and though they are slow to admit defeat, Cole’s resignation will sink in soon, in spite of the Globe’s attempt to keep the activists active and the libertarian needle in the side of the “establishment.”